Tagging And Tracking Zombie Bees

Glitter-sized trackers are keeping tabs on sick bees.

The animal kingdom is full of strange, horrifying, but true stories of zombies: A wasp that takes over a spider's mind and forces the spider to build a silk cocoon for the wasp's offspring, or the worm that forces its pill-bug host or wander into the open and get eaten so the worm can continue its own life cycle inside a bird.

San Francisco State researchers are trying to understand another example: zombees. When bees become infected with a parasite called Apocephalus borealis, they go a little crazy, the scientists say. The zombees will leave the hive behind and fly toward lights as if they were moths, and will die soon thereafter.

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San Francisco State biologist John Hafernik and his team discovered the behavior last year; now they're trying to learn more by affixing small radio trackers to the thoraxes of infected bees. For instance, tracking the bees' every move might tell the scientists when and how these bees abandon the hive—whether they wander off on their own or healthy bees try to push them out. The team built its own hive on campus, complete with a small access tube outfitted with laster readers to track the bees' comings and goings.

They're looking for help, too. The team set up a site called ZomBeeWatch.org, where they ask citizens who see these sick bees to report them so the researchers can track the parasite's spread (they'll tell you how to identify sick bees).